Innermost Healthcare offer a range of services for pregnant women who wish to have individual tests and checks for additional reassurance including those not available from the NHS as well as those who want the whole package of private antenatal care. We also offer private parentcraft classes and a wide range of holistic services such as women’s and obstetric physiotherapy including the Mummy MOT, pregnancy exercise, acupuncture, psychotherapy and counselling and nutritional therapy.

Congratulations! Now you are pregnant what next?

Whilst pregnancy is usually an exciting and enjoyable time for most couples it can also cause much anxiety and worry. Is there a heartbeat, is the baby developing normally, is the baby growing properly, will the baby stay in until the right time or come early? Whether you want individual tests of full private antenatal care throughout, our expert team will help guide you throughout the pregnancy and explain your options along the way from that first positive pregnancy test until the baby is ready to deliver.

We specialise in early viability scans, especially for those concerned about miscarriage, specialist screening tests (not available on NHS) to make sure your baby is developing properly and packages in later pregnancy to monitor growth and wellbeing of your baby and to help plan for a safe birth and a healthy mother and baby.

This gives you additional peace of mind that your baby is fully monitored from conception to delivery and with convenient weekday, weekend and evening appointments, we tailor care to suit your needs and schedules.

Pregnancy is usually divided into three Trimesters each lasting about 13 weeks.

Click on our Pregnancy Timeline to see an overview of all the different tests that may be considered during each of these three stages of pregnancy.

FIRST TRIMESTER (up to 13 weeks)

In in the very early stages of pregnancy there are massive changes to your body, hormones and circulation. Many women will experience breast tenderness, extreme tiredness, nausea and vomiting and running to the bathroom more frequently to empty their bladder. Modern pregnancy test are positive from about 5 weeks after the last period (3 weeks after conception) and are usually very reliable. They work by measuring the levels of pregnancy hormone (hCG) in the urine which has been produced by the afterbirth (placenta). They do not however show if the pregnancy is in the right place within the uterus or outside it in the tubes or pelvis (ectopic pregnancy) and they do not show if it is viable.

An Early Pregnancy Scan from 6 weeks can show that the pregnancy is in the right place and is not an ectopic pregnancy and measurement of the pregnancy sac will give some idea of the dates and estimated due date (EDD). This scan may be possible by scanning through the abdomen (transabdominal scan) but sometimes it may be necessary to perform a transvaginal scan. Click here to read about the Early Pregnancy Scan.

After 7 weeks it should be possible to see a heartbeat to confirm viability, as well as identifying multiple pregnancies and also dating the pregnancy though dating is more accurate around 10-12 weeks. Many babies with abnormalities like spinabifida can now be identified in the first trimester rather than waiting until the 20 week Anomaly Scan. Click here to read about early Spinabifida Screening.

In the first trimester most NHS hospitals only offer a single Early Pregnancy Scan at 11 to 13 weeks leaving a long interval from the first signs of pregnancy until the viability of the pregnancy has been confirmed and an ectopic pregnancy has been excluded.

We therefore offer Early Pregnancy Scans from 6 to13 weeks and an Early Pregnancy Support Package with weekly scans from 7 to 13 weeks to confirm that the pregnancy is intrauterine and not ectopic and the baby is developing normally with a heartbeat present.

We also offer emergency scans for pregnant women with pain or bleeding who are concerned about ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage.

Click here to find out how we can reassure you and your partner in early pregnancy that the pregnancy is progressing normally.

Screening for Down Syndrome and Other Chromosomal Abnormalities

One of the important decisions in the first trimester is whether or not to have screening for common chromosomal abnormalities like Down Syndrome, Edward Syndrome or Patau Syndrome. These conditions can cause learning difficulties, cardiac and other structural defects and other implications for the baby including the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth and lifelong health problems. Click here to read about Chromosomal Abnormalities.

There are two main screening tests for these conditions in the first trimester the Combined Test and Non Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT).

Combined Test

Factors such as maternal age, the amount of fluid underneath the skin at the back of the baby’s neck (nuchal translucency) and two hormones (B-hCG and PAPP-A) are used to calculate the risk of the baby having one of these conditions. If the risk is more than 1:150 then a follow on diagnostic test such as Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS from 11-14 weeks) or Amniocentesis (after 15 weeks) would be offered. Both tests are invasive and carry a small risk of miscarriage. Click here to read about CVS and Amniocentesis.

The Combined Test can detect about 5 out every 6 babies (85%) with Down Syndrome but 1 in 40 women (2.5%) having the test would be flagged up as high risk even if the baby was normal and if they had an invasive test would run the risk of miscarriage. Click here to read about the Combined Test.

Non Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT)

Non Invasive Prenatal Tests (NIPT) like the NIFTY TM Test involve taking a simple blood sample any time from 10 weeks of pregnancy. It can detect 99 out 100 babies with Down Syndrome, Edward Syndrome, Patau Syndrome and some other rarer conditions and also the gender of the baby. It works by extracting some of the baby’s DNA in the mother’s blood stream. Only 1 in 1000 women (0.1%) having the test would be flagged up as high risk if the baby was normal and so very few would lead to a CVS or amniocentesis and their inherent risk of miscarriage. Currently NIPT is the most accurate and safe screening test for many of these common chromosomal abnormalities. Click here to read about the NIPT and the NIFTY Test.

Currently there are plans within the NHS to consider a screening programme based on offering the Combined Test to identify those at increased risk of Down Syndrome, Edward Syndrome and Patau Syndrome and then offer them NIPT instead of an invasive test. This is called Contingency Screening as the offer of NIPT is contingent upon the Combined Test result. Whilst we welcome this improvement as it will reduce the number of invasive tests and miscarriages from them, it will still miss the 1 in 6 affected babies who had a low risk result from their Combined Test.

Universal NIPT Screening

We would therefore recommend the NIPT blood test to any pregnant women who wants an early, accurate (over 99% detection rate), safe screening test for these common chromosomal abnormalities. Few women will need to consider an unnecessary invasive test (1:1000 false positive rate).

We use the NIFTY Test from BGI because it is the most validated NIPT Test at present with over a million tests performed to date and because it will also identify many of the other less common chromosomal abnormalities. The reporting of the gender is of course optional.

Rubella Status and Other Viral Infections in Pregnancy

Rubella (German Measles) is a viral infection which can cause significant damage to an unborn baby especially in early pregnancy. Traditionally all pregnant women in the UK were offered screening at booking to check their Rubella status to see if they were immune or not and to offer those that were not a postnatal vaccination. There are plans to replace this with simply checking if the pregnant woman has been properly vaccinated instead. We offer those who are unsure of their Rubella status a simple blood test to provide either reassurance that they are immune or to ensure that those who are not can take measures to avoid contact with anyone known to be infected and to have a postnatal vaccination. Click here to read about Rubella and Pregnancy.

We also offer screening and testing for other infections such as Syphilis, HIV, Hepatitis (which are routinely offered on the NHS) and also others such as CMV, Toxoplasmosis and Parvovirus. Click here to read about Viral Infections and Pregnancy.

We also offer testing for vaginal infections and conditions such as Bacterial Vaginosis, Chlamydia, Herpes and screening for sexually transmitted diseases. Click the links to read about Vaginal Infections and Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

disable

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.